Since household income has been declining over time (and proportionally fewer individuals earn more than twice the poverty level), the silver lining of the 2008 economic crisis might be that more Americans start seeing poverty for what it is: not something anyone “deserves.”

Census data from 2008 show an increase in the number of women who have lost income, lost private coverage and are falling into poverty. The increase in the number of women without coverage stems from the continued erosion of private insurance –- primarily through the loss of job-based coverage–even before the worst of the economic crisis hit.